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14 injured in Czech distillery explosion

Xinhua, September 23, 2015 Adjust font size:

Part of the production facilities of a distillery in Dobrovice exploded on Tuesday with 14 people injured, two of them seriously, said Czech Central Bohemia firefighters' spokesman Petr Svoboda.

Svoboda said no fire had erupted in the explosion and there was no danger of any further explosions, adding the injured were taken to hospital by helicopter.

Four people suffered eye injuries, scratches and contusions and another four people were injured by nitric acid. Four women who were probably injured by the blast wave suffered minor injuries, said Petra Effenbergova, spokeswoman for the Central Bohemian rescue service.

Dobrovice Mayor Tomas Sedlacek said the explosion occurred during maintenance of the distillery facilities and firefighters had controlled the situation.

A total of 130 people were evacuated from the complex. The distillery was not operating at the time of the explosion because of the maintenance works.

Hradisky said they did not know whether the explosion was caused by human error, or security or technology faults. Parts of tanks, pipelines and other objects were scattered around the blast.

Sedlacek said this was the first such accident in the distillery's history since it opened in 2004. Endit